Crack

The attention span of a modern music fan is too short. As the hype machine rolls on, a successful and credible second album is becoming a rarity.

Lots of bands have exceptionally successful first albums when they are fresh, new and exciting. Riding the crest of a wave when you are the newest name on everyone’s lips is what bands dream about. The buzz of people talking about you is perhaps the best promotional tool any band could ask for.

You tour the first record till it makes you sick and then you go back to the drawing board to come up with new ideas. Every second you are out of the mainstream consciousness, the chasing pack try and take the newbie tag, until, like a bolt from the blue; you come back with your stunning second album.

Fifteen years ago this scenario was a lot easier to achieve. Today, the wide accessibility of music makes it harder to retain a resonance that permeates the hiatus between the first and second album. People move faster. Tastes move faster.

Foals have managed to traverse the tricky comeback comeback with skill. Low-key smaller gigs and a full summer festival programme (mostly in Europe and beyond) will see the band reach a greater audience. Yet most importantly - a really complete, well produced second album.

Their first album was one of the most interesting and diverse records of 2008 and made them the new, young upstarts of British rock music. When indie was in a very wet place, Foals’ brand of fast-paced, dance influenced, choppy post-rock, was not only an intellectually astute piece of work, but a refreshing two fingers up at the state of British guitar music. Debut album - Antidotes, won them plaudits and a legion of fans for its smart, math-rock influences.

And now they return energised with new album - Total Life Forever. They are still possibly the best-placed band in the UK to save all of us from indie mediocrity. Edwin from the band talks to Crack about how Foals are forging their precise path through album number two.



What is behind the title for the new album Total Life Forever?

"Total Life Forever was a phrase that was thrown around a lot over the last few years. It sort of stuck. We like its positivity and its potential as a slogan, but also as an empty, Soviet-style slogan."

Is living together, playing together and touring together a little much at times?

"Yes. We're touring America for five weeks in a van soon, and we're probably going to kill each other. But that will make for good press and it will probably sell more records. That's what it's all about right?"

Has being this close made the recording process a lot more fluid and was it a smoother process than the first record?

"We live in each other's pockets, so there's a permanent tension that lends itself to the creative process, but we know each other well enough to be relaxed around our respective foibles. Yannis, as the primary songwriter, has become more pronounced as we've learnt to respect his focus and skill, so in that sense it's become more fluid."

As a band are you moving on from your original math-rock influences and alternating time signatures?

"We moved away from alternating time signatures a very long time ago. I'd say as soon as Foals came about. Almost all of our songs are in 4/4 (apparently there is some 6/8 somewhere, but I wouldn't know about that). The Edmund Fitzgerald, Yannis and Jack's previous band, were all about the alternating time signatures and I think it exhausted both of them as much as it exhausted their fans. So... yeah. It hasn't really been a concern.

After rejecting the initial mix for Antidotes and re-mixing it yourselves, how much were you all involved with the production process on the new record with Luke Smith?

"Definitely more than we were with Dave, which isn't to say, despite what might be assumed, that we had no involvement with Dave. But we were very much in the studio with Luke from day to day. There were more arguments and it was more of a visceral process, but it was also for the better. If I can summarise, you have the sound of a band pushed to their limits, working with a producer working at his limits. It was a struggle for both of us, but the record is the best thing we could have produced together, so we're all very happy and proud of it."

Did you have to do great deal of post-production?

"Antidotes actually had a lot more post-production. We recorded most of those songs raw and let Dave ‘why mess around when you can fuck around?’ Sitek have his way with them afterwards. This time round, the finished product is actually very close to what went into the mics. We were lucky to work with a lot of natural reverb, so we recorded within it so to speak, and Luke bullied us into getting it ‘right’ the first time round. You can hear the live performance and the natural sound of the room."

Has Yannis ever hurt himself stage diving?

"Sure. Some bruises, some cuts. But he loves it. And he's definitely hurt other people more than himself."

You seem to have a very cult following. Is this something as a band you are proud to have cultivated?

"Of course! Sometimes it's disconcerting, but only because some of them are young and kind of intense in their cultdom. Is that a word? Our only concern is we might lose some of them with the new record. Ideally they'll come with us. But who knows. We'll see."

Some of your early smaller gigs saw big on-stage jam sessions and impromptu tangents. Is the current live set-up a lot more structured in order to accommodate more material?

"It is and it isn't. I don't think our earlier gigs were that impromptu. They might actually have been more structured in our minds, but they might have seemed looser in the audience's ears. We're more relaxed now for sure. But we also have more songs and more of an obligation to play the songs people want to hear. Somewhere out there there's a perfect balance."

What was the thinking behind staying in Oxford and not moving to London?

"Without wanting to sound disingenuous, there wasn't much thought about it. It only sounds like a schtick because so many bands move to London. Most of us have very well established lives at home, that's all. We have friends and communities, and we feel comfortable with the walking distances. I personally am a big fan of London and I spend most of my time there, but everyone else has grown up in Oxford and I guess that's where our roots have set down. It's a beautiful, simple town."

How self-critical are you of the new record in comparison to the obvious quality and success of Antidotes? Or do you not like to compare the two?

"I'm not sure about “obvious quality”. At the time we had a lot of misgivings about both the recording and the songwriting on that record. It's only now that time has passed and we've made another record thatwe can look back at it with confidence. It is, despite everything we said at the time, firmly of its time and place. And we definitely prefer the new record. It's perfectly possible that with more time and more perspective
we'll come to prefer Antidotes. But we'd also prefer not to compare the two. Ideally, we'd have a series of records that complement each other, tell a story and reflect well on each other."

Do you think the new record will alter your live set-up, or the way you approach your live performances?

"It already has a little. I have more synths (never enough, and probably too many), and we are using a couple of drum triggers to replicate a couple of sampled sounds. But that's about it. The rest of the bands still play their instruments, and there's still no backing track. We're loath to over-develop the live setup because, within its limits, we think it's about as good as it can be. More generally, we approach the show with a bit
more patience, less reliance on the crowd to ‘make it happen’, and more confidence in our songs to exist and perform in their own right."

Where did you go to film the video for Spanish Sahara? It looks quite bleak and remote.

"We literally had two days notice to plan and film that video. When I say ‘we’, I mean Yannis and Dave Ma, who collaborate on all of our videos. They flew to Inverness, found a suitable place in the Highlands (panorama, frozen lake, etc.), and pressed record. It's testament to Dave's vision and improvisational skill that it came out so well."

What is influencing you at the moment, because in previous material we’ve read it has been very varied with everything from krautrock to tecnho?

"Right now we're listening to a lot of classic eighties and nineties pop music. I'd like to feign an element of cool, but that's fallen by the wayside. We're listening to early nineties house music, hip-hop and older disco stuff. We're also listening to Delorean,
Islet, Everything Everything, Ariel Pink, Caribou, Kurt Vile and Phoenix.. When it comes to writing and recording the next record I'm sure we'll have a list of influences to flaunt. Right now it's loose and kind of irreverent."

Have you been selective where you are playing this summer?

"I guess so. We're only playing Glastonbury and Reading/Leeds in the UK. But we're playing a lot of European festivals. I think it's a privilege to be selective, as it means there's some sort of demand. I think we're saving ourselves for next year, at least that's what I've been told. We don't have much more than a vocal contribution to our bookings as it's a pretty complicated process."

You always seem to have a wealth of B-sides, is there a large amount of recorded Foals material that is yet to see daylight?

"There's a wealth of unrecorded material for sure, but I think most of it will be lost and that isn't necessarily such a bad thing. There's a bunch of songs that we recorded during the album session, a couple of which will probably be released, and a couple of which will probably be recorded, and a couple of which will probably be buried, or sent to sea, or reinterpreted, or persuasively ignored."

Who was the last person each of you punched?

"The last person I punched was probably my older brother, about 15 years ago. Jimmy last punched a Spanish security guard (apparently). Yannis last punched our tour manager, Nick "Pickles" Jenkin (I saw this). Jack last punched a wasp that was looking at him threateningly (allegedly). Walter last punched some guy in some pub in Oxford during a St. Patrick's Day brawl (which I can definitely believe)."



Tune: This Orient

http://www.myspace.com/foals

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